What a year it has been … and can yet be

Rabbi Mark Wm. Gross

The Torah refers to this early autumn season as t’kufat ha-shanah — “the turning of the year.”

Although I share that observation with you in September, it just so happens that — due to the vagaries of our Jewish lunisolar calendar — the home-stretch conclusion of this particular trip around the sun on our Rosh haShanah New Year won’t be falling until the very beginning of October. Which is apt enough, since the bleak milestone of Oct. 7, falling only a few days afterward, serves to emphasize what a traumatic and difficult year this has been for the Household of Israel since not long after it began last Rosh haShanah.

So many aspects of our lives during the ensuing year have been influenced and actively shaped by the horrific Hamas attack on Israel’s borders on Shabbat Simchat Torah.

The Jewish world was already shaken to our core by the suddenness, scope and ferocity of the jihadists’ assault, and by the atrocities they wrought on unarmed civilians. Over the ensuing months, we have been both drawn together by the moral mandate of the hostage-rescue effort and torn apart by humanitarian concerns over the political motivations behind the IDF campaign in Gaza.

The prolife ration of antisemitic statements and gestures over the past seven years is because the pre-existent crop of bigots are more visible— not more numerous.

As for the rest of the world, their horror, pity and compassion lasted barely half a day. It is not surprising that in some quarters the Hamas jihadists were (by Oct. 8) already being lauded as martyrs to a noble cause. But it was surprising to see the array of people, across the political and philosophical spectrum, who asserted (by Oct. 9) that Israel “had it coming” in punishment for being an arrogant occupier. And it has been most painful for us to see a surprising array of unexpected players fall in step to denounce Jews as racist genocidists.

Journalist Jonathan Tobin has highlighted that the real question here in the United States has very little to do with the tactics of the IDF in Gaza, nor with the more comprehensive challenge of how to protect the west from Iran’s many militant puppets. Tobin notes, the real question “is really about whether the lies about the one Jewish state on the planet being an ‘apartheid’ state composed of ‘white’ oppressors of people of color will be accepted by the American people.”

Based on my experience in interfaith work, over the years and over the past “almost-a-year” since Oct. 7, the answer to Tobin’s question is “No.” The proliferation of antisemitic statements and gestures over the past seven years is because the pre-existent crop of bigots are more visible — not more numerous. The public demonstrations on our streets and college campuses are the work of carefully choreographed and well-funded provocateurs furnished with matching tents; they are neither spontaneous, nor a legitimate expression of the sentiments of our fellow Americans.

On the Shabbat after Oct. 7, our congregation at worship was outnumbered by neighbors from local service clubs and churches, present to share our grief. Over the ensuing months the spiritual leaders of our island religious fellowships have continued to express their caring and concern, responding to the invitation of the Psalmist to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (122:6). As Christians, they admire the People of Israel as eyewitness to the Glory of God; as Americans, they understand full well that the reborn Third Jewish Commonwealth is a beacon of justice and freedom for all. We do not stand alone.

Of course, here within the Jewish community, we stand together as well. Our greater Naples area Jewish community will be gathering for a solemn remembrance of Oct. 7, one year later. I look forward to seeing you there … as the launch of a happier New Year 5785.

Rabbi Mark Wm. Gross serves at Jewish Congregation of Marco Island.